Council votes to rename planned lobbyist registry

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/04/2017 (3250 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg city council voted unanimously Wednesday to change the name of Mayor Brian Bowman’s planned lobbyist registry to “voluntary lobbyist registry.”

The name change lets people know any lobbyists trying to persuade council won’t have to register, said Elmwood-East Kildonan Coun. Jason Schreyer who introduced the amendment calling for the name change.

“Many people will assume that we brought in a lobbyist registry that is compulsory, but it is not,” Schreyer said.

“Transparency is the issue,” he said. “Let’s call this what it is, for transparency as well as plain English.”

The mayor’s plan to create a lobbyist registry is a step toward shaking off city hall scandals and allegations of the past few years, but it met with some resistance from not-for-profit groups and city councillors for a variety of reasons.

Charities say they’re all for transparency but leery of the “administrative burden” a registry could create and how it may have a “chilling effect” on community engagement, said Christina Maes-Nino, who was speaking on behalf of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg.

“We support the creation of a lobbyist registry because we know its intention is to bring transparency,” Maes-Nino said. She asked that charities, which are already accountable to their boards and the Canada Revenue Agency, be excluded from the registry.

“We already have a lot of accountability mechanisms in place,” she said.

The registry would add another layer of reporting work for charities already strapped for cash, Maes-Nino said. “Do we report this or that? When and how?”

Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski), who initially backed the lobbyist registry, said Wednesday he changed his mind. With existing regulations and an ethics watchdog already in place, there’s no need for a lobbyist registry the city will have to pay to implement, he said.

“This is all covered off in many pieces of legislation which can be dealt with by an integrity commissioner,” said Eadie, who voted in favour of renaming it the voluntary lobbyist registry but against the registry itself. He was the only councillor opposed to it.

Coun. Janice Lukes (South Winnipeg) voted in favour of the registry but complained about how it was presented to council and the lack of time and consultation that went into it.

“The mayor did no outreach on this important issue,” Lukes said. “There was no public consultation on fundamental changes at city hall… This has to change.”

Bowman announced on the afternoon before Good Friday he would bring a plan for a lobbyist registry to his executive policy committee (EPC) the following Wednesday and then to council the week after. The EPC unanimously approved the proposal at its April 19 meeting without comment or debate.

“This is being dropped from on high,” Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt said at Wednesday’s council meeting. He compared the mayor’s office to a “dictatorship.”

Wyatt accused Bowman of having a “Donald Trump style of doing business,” and that rather than focusing on “real issues” such as the state of roads, the lobbyist registry was introduced as a “distraction to make it look like things are happening when things aren’t happening.”

Wyatt ended up voting for the voluntary lobbyist registry.

Bowman said there’s room for improvement to the proposed registry, including changing its name to show it’s not compulsory for lobbyists to register.

“If changing the title makes it more open and transparent, I support efforts to do so,” he said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca